Elizabethtown

Every now and then something happens that threatens to shake all my "Woe-is-America" convictions and what some people would term anti-American sentiments in its foundations.
Having watched the 2005 flick "Elizabethtown" recently was one of those events.

As much as you want to hate Americans for their stupidity in actually swallowing the garbage their President is saying - or the majority of their paid-off preachers, for that matter - you can't help loving its culture, its music, and the people who show that side of America, even if the only place it actually exists is in its movies.

There IS no spoon!

Last updated: 2010-03-13 06:44:12 by McDozer

BACK COVER SYNOPSIS: From Oscar winner Cameron Crowe comes a potent blend of rock 'n' roll and classic romantic comedy. Orlando Bloom stars in this life-affirming, heartfelt story as Drew Baylor, a hot-shot designer whose life becomes completely unraveled on one fateful day. En route to Elizabethtown to visit his family, Drew meets Claire (Kirsten Dunst). She's beautiful, has an unstoppably positive nature and she has decided to be just the gal to guide Drew on his journey back home and to teach him what it means to live and love along the way. Every once in a while, a movie transports you to a place where heart, humour, incredible music and an unforgettable story meet... welcome to Elizabethtown.

FILM REVIEW: Oscar winner Cameron Crowe gave us the heart-felt, and good film "Jerry Maguire". In that film, Tom Cruise plays a sports agent who has a mental breakdown, loses his career, has to find himself and start again. In "Elizabethtown", Orlando Bloom plays a hot-shot designer who loses his career, has a mental breakdown, almost commits suicide, and then begins a journey to find himself and start again. Anything familiar there? Well, there is one major difference between the two: "Jerry Maguire" was a well done film, "Elizabethtown" is not. There are a lot of factors why this film just doesn't gel together very well. Overall, this film just doesn't grab you, least of which being that it's already been done before, just with certain particulars changed.
The script and direction ultimately don't set us up very well. The film has the same kind of tone as "Jerry Maguire" from the outset but for some reason, the idea that Bloom designed one shoe that lost his company a billion dollars (and not seeing the lead-up to that, we start after the fact) doesn't seem to be as believable. I guess it could happen but for the purposes of this film, I didn't really click with it. From the point on, you can see the filmmakers are trying really hard to get you hooked in to the supposed 'realness' of the characters and their situations but again, unlike "Jerry Maguire", you just don't feel it and feel strangely detached from it.
One of the major factors in this is Orlando Bloom; he's a great actor but he doesn't seem to be the type of actor who can headline a film. It's through him that you have to invest in the rest of the film and it doesn't help that he only really has three different looks on his face throughout the film. From his character's emotional standpoint, he doesn't look all that different at the end than what he did at the beginning. He also doesn't look comfortable in the role he's playing; almost as if he's not sure how he should be reacting in certain situations. This leads to some forced performing which is unfortunate.
Kirsten Dunst lifts this film up a notch or two whenever she appears. She is the only one who seems to capture the essence of the characters she is playing as the positive and uplifting Claire who reminds Drew that it's not the end of the world even if he spectacularly failed in his work. A strong message to be sure but when Bloom doesn't convey it, well, it just doesn't matter. Susan Sarandon is also strong as Drew's mother and has an uplifting scene at her husband's memorial when she tap dances to the crowd who up until that point did not respect her for taking their friend and brother away from them.
There's an attempt on behalf of the filmmakers to inject music to convey themes, and Drew's roadtrip through the States where he eventually meets with Claire is an excellent example. Drew gets to see how others have lived their lives, and possibly for more important things. This technique worked well in "Jerry Maguire" but here just seems like filler. Director Crowe has done an amicable job in the past of recreating melancholy and personal nostalgia in his films but it's gone wayward in this effort, mainly because the core premise and the lack of investment in the lead character are way off target.
For example, what could have been an effective scene occurs when Drew visits the motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated. It's one of the very few moments that the look on Bloom's face actually matches the intention of the scene when he realises that losing money on a shoe pales in comparison to what King accomplished in his life time. But the problem is that we've seen the same look on Bloom's face in previous scenes... and then scenes after that one... so there doesn't seem to be any journey taking place for the character. So if it doesn't look like it's happening for him, why should it happen for us in the audience?
This is the type of film that has all the parts but isn't able to bring those parts together to make the magic. There's a lot in here that would sustain an excellent film but it just doesn't work. You can see it would have worked well on paper and it's an object lesson about the importance of direction and acting in either elevating or denigrating a piece of material.
Overall, this film just isn't good and doesn't work despite all of its good intentions.

TECHNICAL REVIEW: The video transfer is for the most part excellent, with rich, sharp colourful images throughout. The audio is also well produced, featuring a number of songs and musical hits to keep you bopping along throughout the film.

EXTRAS REVIEW: There are extras on this disc but you'd wonder why they're on here. There are two featurettes called "Training Wheels" and "Meet the Crew" which potentially could have shown some behind the scenes insights but in fact are just music collages of images from the production (and not long at that - only about 2 minutes each in length). There's an extended scene from the film, a photo gallery, two trailers and subtitles. Overall, this is filler content masquerading as an extras package: about the same as having nothing to look at.

BOTTOM LINE: Rent it if you're bored and there's not much else to choose from.

FILM RATING: 5/10 -- EXTRAS RATING: 3/10 -- OVERALL DVD RATING: 4/10 

Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net